Rules Of Golf That Apply In The Teeing Area

Golf Monthly rules expert Jezz Ellwood explains what you can and can't do on the tee under the rules of golf.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm on the 14th tee on the international course at the London Club. It's a 179 yard par

00:11three playing in that direction and we're here to talk about the teeing area. The teeing area is one

00:15of the specifically defined parts of the golf course from which we start every hole obviously

00:20but it can be a variety of sizes because it depends how far the tee marks are set apart

00:26as to how wide or narrow an area you get to tee off from but regardless of how wide it is it

00:31always extends back two club lengths from the front most and outermost extremities of whatever

00:36tee markers are being used on the day. The ball has to be wholly outside the defined teeing area

00:43for you to be deemed to be playing from outside the teeing area so if even just a tiny part of

00:47the ball is within that area I've specified then you're okay. You can also stand outside the teeing

00:53area to play a ball that is within the teeing area. So what are the penalties if you tee off

00:58from outside the teeing area either inadvertently or perhaps you play from the wrong set of tees

01:03you wander over to the yellows by mistake when you're not concentrating. Well the penalties are

01:08the same and in match play there actually is no penalty. You are not penalized for playing from

01:14outside the teeing area however what can happen is that your opponent may ask for the stroke to be

01:19cancelled and for you to replay from within the teeing area so it will probably depend how well

01:25you've struck that first ball as to whether you get asked to play again. In stroke play it's a very

01:29different story it's a two stroke penalty straight away and then you must take further action to remedy

01:35the situation before you tee off on the next hole make a stroke at the next hole or before you return

01:41your scorecard if it's your last hole and you must go back and play the hole again from within the teeing area

01:47so the bad news is it's a two stroke penalty the good news is that none of the strokes made with

01:52the ball played from outside the teeing area count and if you don't rectify the mistake in that time

01:58frame specified then I'm afraid the penalty will escalate to disqualification. A couple of other

02:04things to mention on the teeing area the first is because the ball is not in play you're allowed to

02:09do things here that you're not allowed to do elsewhere on the course so you can make a dent with your club to

02:14put the ball on if you want to you can stand down anything you can remove dew frost water

02:22you can break grass if you want to tee off in a certain place and there's a tuft of grass just

02:26behind your ball you can break that grass off before you tee off and the other thing it's worth

02:31mentioning I'm not sure how many people know this is that any time your ball is within the teeing area

02:36of the hole being played you can re-tee it now that might seem a bit a bit notional because that's not

02:42going to happen very often but it does mean that if you're playing foursomes and your partner happens

02:46to whiff it or barely move it you can tee the ball back up and play it from any part of the teeing area

02:52you wish if it had remained within the teeing area just a handy little one to know to perhaps

02:57limit the damage when things are already going a little bit wrong